Community Builds Confidence

This week, while I was away with my family, there was a number of drug overdoses back home, two of them within my circles of life. Addiction has become a dreadful epidemic that deeply affects so many of us. This may seem a bit off-topic for my typical blog, but in actuality it is not at all. Obviously drugs are attractive somehow, and isn’t it the chemically enhanced confidence that makes them so addictive?

It’s not just the high that kids crave; it’s the sense of belonging.

The drug community offers that. It is tight. These kids cover for each other, they understand each other, they work together to buy and sell what they need or want. While so many are making these destructive and disturbing choices without understanding the consequences, I want to assure you that not everyone is “going to hell in a hand basket.”

Our family trip was to see my daughter perform at a Christian national fine arts festival and youth conference. This was an amazing opportunity for her to pursue her dream and build her confidence. So we packed up our RV and headed across the country to hang out with more than 10,000 teenagers for the week.

Before you pity me or consider me a martyr, let me assure you that my life was enriched by being around so many amazing and talented teens! It wasn’t just their giftedness in the arts; it was their acceptance and encouragement of each other that amazed me. In a society where so many taunt and tease the extraordinary, in a generation of intimidation and bullying, it was truly refreshing to watch kids flock to each other’s performances and cheer each other on.

The arts reveal the heart, and I witnessed a generation that is not naive to the pressures and temptations they face, but they desire to BE the influencers of good instead of the followers of wrong. I think most kids feel that way deep inside, but it’s hard for them to be strong when they feel alone in their convictions.

These kids need to know that they can still have fun without chemical influences.

Thousands of teens from all over the nation learned that this week. They were having a blast pursuing their passions, sharing their heart, and empowering each other with the knowledge that they are not alone. Talk about building confidence!

And the most beautiful part: the relationships they built and the feelings they had won’t wear off like a hit does!

If you are struggling to help your teens find themselves, I encourage you to lead them to a place of good and wholesome fun and believe in them. They do want to make a difference in their world. Help them see how they can.

Ephesians 5:7-9 Don’t participate in the things these people do.For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

*****

Catrina Welch is an inspirational author and speaker whose personal experience with overcoming rejection, betrayal and loss–as well as her expertise as a cosmetologist, image consultant and Biblical life-coach–is empowering women to BE and LET BE.

Her latest book, CONFIDENT BEAUTY: Reflecting the One Who Made You, with the Images in your Mirror and in your Soul, is now available in your favorite

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Catrina Welch

Catrina's heart is toward God's girls of all ages. There is nothing she loves more than to use her gifts of teaching and encouraging to minister to women who are fighting the battles in life that she has had to fight, namely the emotional and ... Read Full